A Moorland Hanging

A Moorland Hanging (1996) Michael Jecks

Okay, I give up. At least for now. Michael Jecks is a good storyteller, I will give him that, but his writing… The Merchant’s Partner was sllightly better than The Last Templar as far as his writing style, but A Moorland Hanging is just as frustrating to read as the first book.

Point of view changes from paragraph to paragraph, and not always clearly, so once again I kept having to stop, to try to figure out who was thinking and observing. It served as a major distraction from what was otherwise a very good mystery.

In the story, Simon and Sir Baldwin are called out to the Moors to investigate problems between the tin miners and the local landowner. A miner is found dead, hanging from a tree, and Simon and Baldwin must decide, out of all the people who might have wanted him dead, who actually killed him.

And the mystery is pretty good in this book, although once or twice I did feel that Baldwin was acting a bit too much like Sherlock Holmes. For the most part Baldwin and Simon made a good team, each solving parts of the mystery.

As always I enjoyed the historical detail. I never thought much about how mining developed, and as someone who has seen what mining can do to the land, it was interesting to see the roots of how things started. Interestingly, the environmentalist in me was horrified at the descriptions of what the miners were allowed to do, why other parts of me kept thinking, “that is SO unsafe! All that smoke they are inhaling can’t be good for their lungs!” and other such really foolish thoughts, considering the time period.

I was also interested by the ideas surrounding the moor.

The trees were unlike any the knight had seen before; it was as if each of the plants had been shriveled. All were stunted, misshapen caricatures of the great boughs he knew from his own lands. None were more than twenty feet tall, and most were much shorter.
…
“(The trees) certainly are very curious. All the branches point in the same direction–had you noticed that?”
…
“Well, you know the stories, don’t you? About the Devil and his pack of wish-hounds baying after lost souls? This is where those stories come from, Baldwin, out here on the moors. They say that the wish-hounds are heard here when the wind blows hard.”

I found that fascinating because I’ve know precisely what that looks like. When my parents took us to the top of Spruce Knob they explained why the trees were the way they were, but I remember how spooky and alien I found the landscape. (I believe that it was also very foggy.) So it was an interesting detail that resonated with me. But not enough to save the book from the writing.

If someone tells me that in his later mysteries his writing improves, I’ll consider picking up this series again, but for now, there is no way I am going to pay cover price for a writing style this frustrating. If I find the books used I’ll consider picking them up–because the mysteries really are quite good–but his writing style is entirely too maddening.
Rating: 6/10

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